Ranch from Scratch!

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In researching how to live a healthier lifestyle but still enjoy the favorite foods I love, I discovered a recipe for ranch dressing from scratch and I feel a lot better eating this version than any store bought version.  It tastes amazing.  You need to label it with a date, because your are using fresh milk (soy, almond, or cow), either way, the milk will expire.  I recommend using it within a weeks time, at the most a week and half.

Ingredients:

5 tablespoons dried minced onions
7 teaspoons parsley (dried or fresh and dried)
4 teaspoons sea salt
3 teaspoons garlic powder

Mix these ingredients together and store in a jar.  When you are ready to make dressing, mix:

1 cup of mayonnaise (here you can use a healthy version of your choice)
1 cup of milk (I used 2% milk, but I will soon experiment with almond milk and soy milk)
Add dry mix to this to taste.  The original recipe I saw for this seemed a little sparing and asked to add only 2 tablespoons.  I ended up adding around 4 tablespoons.  I also modified it by adding the following...

Xanthan gum (you can omit this if you do not mind it being slightly runny)

Add just tiny pinches of xanthan gum as a little goes a long way.  I suggest adding pinches, then shaking the jar, and repeat that process.  It will also thicken after refrigeration.

I am not one to follow recipes explicitly, I usually end up modifying, so this is the modified version of a recipe I found on Self-Reliance by Jamie, I recommend the site!